Thermal wave imaging (TWI), a technology based on heat conduction and radiation through materials, is a relatively new addition to current non-destructive inspections (NDI) systems. Bonding of composites, an extremely important step in manufacturing and repair of laminates, could be affected by defects originating from faulty manufacturing processes or damages during the operation of the products. Bonding defects are typically characterized by NDI as part of quality control in manufacturing and routine and unscheduled maintenance checks. The present work is focused on the application of TWI for identification of debonds in carbon fiber – epoxy laminates and specifically TWI resolution and accuracy will be evaluated. Various techniques for the simulation of bonding defects, using film adhesive and polylactic acid, were designed for calibration purposes and experimentally evaluated. The system showed an average accuracy of 13.4% in determining a defect’s location, and average accuracy of 314.6% in determining a defect's size. An exponential decay trend between the aspect ratio of a defect and error in the estimation of the defect’s size, was confirmed. Aspect ratio however seems not to significantly affect estimates of the location of the defects. Furthermore, the system's resolution, defined by the defect’s aspect ratio, was estimated to be around 2 with the minimum defect size visible at 3mm.